The Georgia Board of Education on Monday unanimously approved Ivy Preparatory Academy’s plan to open k-12 boys and girls schools in DeKalb County.
The schools, Ivy Preparatory Academy at Kirkwood, will be housed on the former campus of Peachtree Hope Charter School. Each campus will have 265 students and a staff of 10. A parent information session will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday on the DeKalb campus.
State charter school officials said the plan will help keep more educational options available for DeKalb students.
“These are two brand-new schools that happened to be located at the site of a former school,” said Lou Erste, director of the state’s charter school division. “It was a good solution.”
Erste thanked the state board for moving quickly on reviewing and approving the petition so the campus could open this fall. The vote was 7-0, with six members absent.
“This is how a bureaucracy like we have can react efficiently and effectively when it has to,” said Brian Burdette, a state school board member. Burdette added that the vote would not set a precedent.
Nina Gilbert, head of school of Ivy Preparatory Academy in Norcross, will lead the expansion as the new executive director of Ivy Schools.
Gilbert said a "steady flow" of former Peachtree Hope Charter School parents have been picking up applications. Ivy Prep in Norcross, a middle and high school, has nearly 600 students, 200 of whom live in DeKalb. The new campus will open with k-6 students and add a grade each year. DeKalb sixth-graders in Gwinnett will have the option of switching campuses.
“It feels like I have twins,” Gilbert said after the vote. “We just opened two schools in the blink of an eye. I am very grateful to the Charter Schools Committee, the state board and Superintendent [John] Barge for making sure that these students do not have their education interrupted.”
Ivy Prep will hold a job fair Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Norcross.
DeKalb parent Beth Laing, who will have sixth- and seventh-grade daughters at the Norcross campus when school starts there Monday, said she was excited about the expansion.
“I think academically it’s far superior,” she said of Ivy Prep.
Erste said that the girls' school curriculum will also work for boys, calling it “well-researched, well-documented and replicable.”
Student applications to the school are available at www.ivyprepacademy.org. The deadline is Wednesday. School starts Aug. 31.
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